Science and Technology Australia wants four big issues on the election agenda, all of which are easily delivered

The peak lobby’s priorities are; a whole of government science and technology plan, a workforce STEM skills plan, “strong investment” in fundamental and applied research and a commitment to evidence-based policy.

It is on the impossible side of hard to see any politician not committing to generalities like these. But STA has specifics in the weeds, which require real responses, notably;

* scoping a research future fund, “to complement” the Australian Research Council (presumably as the MRFF does with the NHMRC)

* reversing last year’s cuts to research block grants and other funding

* CPI as the minimum increase in funding for research programmes

* no cuts to CSIRO, Bureau of Statistics and Bureau of Meteorology